Utter-Gerig Round Barn, Akron Indiana

Date added: April 17, 2023 Categories: Indiana Barn Round Barn

The Utter-Gerig Round Barn, built in 1915, is an outstanding representative of the application of scientific research to the improvement of agriculture. Built during an age when many cattle operations, such as feeding and bedding, involved much physical labor, the round barn used new engineering technology to make farm chores more centralized and therefore easier. In a broader sense, round barns represent the "Golden Age of Agriculture," when for a brief time during the early 1900s, farmers prospered from high prices for their goods, new techniques, and a sudden increase in demand for farm products created by World War I.

Oliver Perry Utter, father of the present owners, had the barn built in 1915. He commissioned carpenters Courtney and Sumner Rhodes of nearby Athens, Indiana, to build a round barn on his farmstead. Fieldstone gathered from the farm were laid into foundation walls by Clem, Wilbur, and Burwell Hammond of Akron, Indiana.

Buildings of circular form or central plan have been associated with progressive or ideal concepts for centuries in Western culture. In an agricultural context, central plan buildings are recorded as far back as the ninth century. A circular farm building at St. Gall Monastery is shown on plans dated A.D. 800. Round farm buildings were erected on English farms in the 1600s, and English publications from the 17^th and 18^th centuries mention polygonal barns.

In America, the central plan barn was distinctly associated with progressive agriculture. George Washington, who was very interested in scientific farming, had one of the earliest known central plan barns in America built on his Dongue Run Farm in Virginia in 1793. The Shakers were also interested in improving scientific agricultural techniques. This sect erected a 90-foot diameter stone round barn in 1824, which was replaced by another round barn in 1865.

Both structures were widely admired and in several cases even inspired other central plan barns.

Through the 19^th century, various persons and publications promoted centrally planned agricultural buildings. Orson Squire Fowler, champion of the octagonal house, also included a chapter about octagonal barns in his 1853 A Home for All. Elliot Stewart, a farmer from Erie County, New York, rekindled serious interest in the central plan barn in 1875 when he erected an octagonal dairy barn on his farm. Stewart taught at Cornell University's College of Agriculture and edited several farming journals. He published plans for his barn and maintained correspondence from interested farmers. By 1884, Stewart noted that 30 to 40 barns on his plan had been built in the United States, including 3 in Indiana. It is unknown if these 3 barns still stand, however, one early example of central planned farm outbuildings, Jersey Park Farm in Floyd County, may have been influenced by these early attempts at round barn development.

The true round barn was not developed until the 1890s. As with other agricultural improvements, the round barn was the result of scientific research rather than acquired knowledge. Lowell Soike, in his without Right Angles, credits three developments with making the round barn practical. The widespread acceptance of lightweight balloon framing made building curved walls much easier. Next, the improvement of engineering techniques for self-supporting roofs allowed lofts to be free of posts. Third, the new method (c. 1880) of raising animals on silage necessitated the development of the now ubiquitous cylindrical silo. The round silo made the idea of circular farm buildings more acceptable.

Two important round barn prototypes combined these three developments. In 1889, Professor Franklin King of Wisconsin was given the challenge of designing a barn that could combine space for cows, horses, silo, granary, and dry fodder storage in one structure. King, who was also involved in developing round silos, adopted a circular, central plan as the solution. Plans and literature about this barn were widely published.

The Illinois Dairy Department of the Experiment Station perfected King's round barn in 1900-1910 when three large barns were erected on the University of Illinois campus in Champaign. These barns improved on King's design by featuring self-supporting roofs.

Progressive Hoosier farmers could not help but notice, or perhaps even saw first hand, these two significant developments in barn construction. Northwestern and Central Indiana farmers were quick to adopt the new techniques and business-like approach to farming that characterized agriculture during late 19^th early 20^th century. About 154 round barns were built in Indiana, 15 of these were in Fulton County alone. Nine round barns stand in Fulton County today.

The exact reason Fulton County has so many round barns is not clear. Two factors may be considered, however. First, farmers who sought contractors to erect round barns often found few or no local builders who were capable of handling such a project. This is often cited as the primary reason why so few round barns were built. In this matter, Fulton County had no shortage of talent. The Kindig brothers were highly skilled carpenters who erected 9 round barns in Fulton County. Courtney and Sumner Rhodes of Athens also built barns in the area, including the Utter-Gerig Round Barn. Secondly, many Fulton County farms had sizable dairy operations, and the round barn was well suited to handle dairy cattle.

Round barns continued to be erected in Fulton County into the 1920s.

By this time, the sudden decrease in demand for farm products following World War I was bringing an age of rural prosperity to an end. The Great Depression and changes in farming techniques and machinery sealed the fate of the round barn; only thirty years after it appeared it was rendered obsolete.

Barn Description

The Utter-Gerig Round Barn occupies level farmland in rural Henry Township of Fulton County. The Utter-Gerig farmstead includes several typical late 19th/early 20th-century buildings such as the family house and gable-roofed barns.

The Utter-Gerig Round Barn is a wood frame structure resting on a fieldstone foundation. It is about 63 feet in diameter and encloses two primary floors. The barn was erected in 1915 using fieldstone, timber, and several beams from a log barn, all found on the farm.

The fieldstone foundation has only two openings on the east and west sides. Above the foundation, walls are of vertical boards reaching to the eave line. The lower level has evenly spaced four light-fixed square windows. A broad earth ramp obscures a portion of the west foundation, providing vehicular access to the second level. Poured concrete retaining walls support the ramp. Markings in the concrete are believed to have come from beams from a log barn which was dismantled when this barn was erected. Large eave-to-sill plate sliding doors are the main wagon entrance. The second level has no windows.

Perhaps the most character-defining element of the exterior is the double-pitched bell cast conical roof capped by a round cupola vent.

The cupola originally had windows that pivoted open, operated by an interior rope system. The windows have since been blocked or converted to louvered vents. The original wood shingle roofing has long since been replaced by asphalt shingles.

The interior of the Utter-Gerig Round Barn is divided into two levels. The lower floor houses cattle, horses, and sheep. An east-west drive bisects this level. Large sliding doors at either end provide access to the exterior at grade. Semi-circular areas are centered on the middle of the floor. Closest to the center are feed rooms, followed by stalls on the south half and V-shaped feeders to the north. An open aisle is located closest to the outside wall. Hatches and chutes in the ceiling (upper floor) allowed feed and straw for bedding to be dropped from above.

A team and manure spreader used this aisle to make cleaning the stalls easier. Originally, stalls were V-shaped, but during the 1920s, stanchions were installed to replace them. The massive supporting posts and floor joists are exposed. The floor is poured concrete.

An open staircase leads from the north feed room to the upper level.

The upper level was originally completely open. During the 1940s, large posts were added to support the sagging roof. As part of a total rehabilitation, telephone poles were added to further support the roof and restore its distinctive double pitch. The floor has two layers to stand up to wagon traffic. The upper level served as a hay and feed mow as well as equipment storage. Though its roof is no longer self-supporting, the Utter-Gerig Round Barn is otherwise very intact.

Sheep and cattle are still housed in the building.

A concrete block milkhouse is partially attached to one of the ramp wingwalls. Built in c.1943, this hip roofed building stored milk until a truck arrived.